City: Bengaluru

When it appears that everybody has lost hopes with the Indian National Congress, Bengaluru’s own billionaire Nandan Nilekani decided to partner with the party. With the aim of becoming the champion for Bengaluru, the man behind the multi-crore Aadhaar project, gave an exclusive interview to Citizen Matters at his campaign office in Jayanagar on March 20th 2013. This was just a day before he declared his family assets — Rs 7,700 crore.   Nilekani shared his thoughts on governance, why he chose to join Congress, and what he can do as an MP for Bengaluru, which is run by MLAs…

The receding rains and the advent of summer is the time when the lush green landscape in Bangalore turns to crisp brown. Rain-fed lakes are just about holding out, trying hard not to become parched playgrounds. This summer-time drying kills off aquatic weeds and gives fresh life to the lakes before the next rains. Lake care-takers get an opportunity to attend to the lake beds, repair silt traps, clear out water inlets, and do other things that need to be done before the onset of the next monsoon. The grass, weeds and many of the plants on lake revetments, dry…

Hundreds of residents took to streets in protest against the multicrore project coming up on Bellandur wetlands. “Mall beda, Neer beku! Go back Mantri!” shouted hundreds of residents — not just the adults but also the young children — assembled beside Srjapur Road, near the biggest lake of Bengaluru, Bellandur lake. They had come from HSR Layout, Koramangala and Bellandur. When government failed to take action and justice was slow in coming, citizens decided to protest, and this was the result. At 10.30 am on March 23rd, 2014, men and women from all ages wearing caps and holding umbrellas, marched…

There are two kinds of leaders. One who leads by example and other who motivates others to  set examples. India as a country has seen many such leaders. Gandhi was probably the only leader who fell in both categories. He showed his resistance against foreign rule himself first and then motivated others to join him. But that is indeed rare. People like APJ Abdul Kalam and Sachin Tendulkar have led by example. They have shown ordinary people how dedication, determination and talent can make us shine. People like A B Vajpayee, Subhash Chandra Bose have motivated, inspired others to set…

The enormity of the Lok Sabha Elections is many a time difficult to comprehend. The machinery that has clicked into the play mode is not only that of the political parties but that of the Election Commission too. The numbers are tallied in millions of voters, in crores for poll expenditure, in lakhs of polling booths, polling agents, police, paramilitary, reserve police and even unaccounted for cash that is seized. The world’s largest democracy is going into polls and it is therefore excusable that the elections for the country’s 16th Lok Sabha is hogging a lot of media space and…

The residents of Bellandur, Koramangala and HSR Layout in Bengaluru, who have been fighting over the months to get the government to stop the mega project coming up on the wetland lying between Agara and Bellandur lakes, finally are resorting to a massive protest, to make their voices heard louder. The protest will be held on Sunday, March 23, 2014, at 10.30 am. The project is said to be violating the conditions set by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, namely not altering the sloping pattern, not encroaching the drains etc. Despite this, the project developers Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd…

Students pursuing their master’s in physical education from Bangalore University (BU) are not provided with a proper sports ground, which eventually results in fewer number of physical education teachers in the city. After the students graduate in Masters in Physical Education, they are required to clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) in order to apply for jobs in primary and high schools for the post of PEd teacher. There is only one college affiliated to BU that provides the course of MPed, University College of Physical Education. The college has one ground where students train in multiple sports. The SoftCopy…

Last week, when I and my wife were going out, we saw a small political rally behind us. What caught my attention was, one of the politicians who was the centre of attraction in the rally, was using an official vehicle. This left me wondering whether using office vehicle in political campaigning is allowed. So I did my research and bumped on to this set of guidelines called ‘Model Code of Conduct.’ Here is a look at what the Model Code of Conduct is, what does the code talk about electoral violations, how do citizens know if they are witnessing…

The ever-smiling staunch BJPian Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda, popularly known as DVS, has been in politics since 1983. Born in 1953, he graduated in science, and had a brief stint as an advocate, before plunging headlong into politics through Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Jan Sangh. Hailing from Puttur of coastal Karnataka, with a strong RSS background, he became an MLA from Bharatiya Janata Party in 1994. He then contested Lok Sabha elections in 2004. He entered Lok Sabha by defeating the now-central Minister Veerappa Moily. He headed Karnataka BJP in 2006 as its state president, and was perceived…

In the narrow lanes of Shantinagar, off the Markam road, Bangalore Central Candidate for Aam Aadmi Party V Balakrishnan decided to start his first campaign, Jansabha. The location was the crowded junction of the five lanes that had constant movement of scooters and bikes. The event was scheduled on Friday, 14th March 2013. Young volunteers ran up and down fixing the banners and placing the red carpet on the floor, while senior citizens distributed the pamphlets. The party’s symbol “Zhadu” (broom) was placed at the two open corners of the stage. At the background, the speakers relentlessly aired the Aam…